Distributed Cognition: Assessing the Structure of Urban Scale Artificial Intelligence

摘要

Urban scale artificial intelligence (AI) is most frequently structured to sense and gather as much information as possible. Is this the most appropriate evaluation of intelligence? Many descriptions of so-called Smart Cities focus exclusively on their sensorial capabilities, but little is given to their cognitive capacities. Discussion of the deployment of computation within the urban environment has largely avoided notions of cognition, though a capacity for cognition is ultimately what we are asking of anything that is to be “smart”. Cognition itself may be presented in a variety of ways, and determining what structure is most appropriate for urban scale AI is a critical discussion with significant implications for our collective ecological footprint. This article attempts to frame the integration of urban scale AI within a discussion of cognitive structures by building from the work of Benjamin Bratton and Edwin Hutchins to analyze the material culture of Masdar City and the Internet of Things, ultimately arguing that strategies of distributed cognition are both more feasible and more performative than a traditional Smart City model.